A mock crime scene featuring an abandoned car and a trail of footprints popped up in the city centre today.

Members of the public who stopped to take a look were shown how to extract DNA from a strawberry, how to lift fingerprints and footwear marks from a crime scene and lots more.

The curious display was all to do with a Coventry University forensics demonstration showcasing some of the courses students can sign up to.

The abandoned car, surrounded by police tape, drew a lot of interest from shoppers in Broadgate and the visual demonstrations proved a big hit with young children.

Extracting DNA from a strawberry

Students from the university demonstrated how they would go about assessing the crime scene.

Footprints at the mock crime scene

Adele Heath, course leader for biological and forensic sciences, told CoventryLive: "We've had some of our first year students come in in their white suits. We teach them crime scene management and evidence recovery.

"This car has been dumped in the city centre this morning and the students have been processing it. They've been trying to get fingerprints from the car and they've been swabbing the inside for DNA."

Pop up crime scene on Broadgate

The faculty of health and life sciences at Coventry University runs a number of courses for students wanting to study forensic science.

"We really wanted to come down and give the people of Coventry an idea of what we can offer," Adele said.

"We've got lots of different activities and lots of tutors that you can ask questions to about forensic science.

"There's finger printing and footwear marks, getting DNA from a strawberry, which the kids are loving, and a bit of chromatography you can do too."

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Dr Alan Greenwood, course leader for analytical chemistry and forensic science, was on hand to demonstrate how a simple Bunsen burner test can help identify evidence in investigations and how a forensic officer would go about collecting evidence from the crime scene.

Forensics students explained how to assess the abandoned car

The Coventry University team will be giving demonstrations in Broadgate until 3pm today.

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